Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Oooooh-oooh that smell; can't you smell that smell

Foul flower draws crowdBy Dan NienaberThe Mankato Free PressST PETER— Fourteen years of careful cultivation came to a fuming fruition at Gustavus Adolphus College Saturday night, just in time to give mom a smelly treat for Mother’s Day.“I think it smells like a dead animal, myself, but other people have their own interpretations,” said Brian O’Brien, the Gustavus biology instructor who planted the seed that on Saturday became a rare blooming “corpse flower.”Scientifically known as the Titan Arum or Amorphophallus titanum, the plant gets its corpse flower nickname from the strong odor it gives off while in bloom. Emily Hoefs, manager of the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science greenhouse where the flower is located, compared the smell to dead minnows that have been rotting in a bucket for a few days.Despite the stench, people lined up to view the flower, which is found naturally only in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra. Here are several written descriptions of what they said their noses encountered: Propane, rotten sauerkraut, chicken in the garbage during summer, a week old cat box and, simply, “poop.”

Ah, my alma mater in the news. I guess they could have made headlines in even more disgusting ways than by simply having grown a large, stinky flower.

Speaking of "ooooh-oooh that smell." MM and I are going to go see Lynnard Skynnard this weekend, along with Hank Williams, in their Rowdy Friends Tour. I've been a Skynnard fan since I walked the hallowed halls of Gustavus Adolphus College. This may be my last chance to go see them before I get even more mellow in my old age. MM is basically a classical music aficianado, so this is going to be quite the experience for her.